


Anakin Tried

by Esmethewitch



Series: Tales of Rey Skywalker [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin kills Reylo, Force Child Rey, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Green Milk - Freeform, Humor, Rey Skywalker, Stress Dreams, Suspicious Rey, bad metaphors, porgs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 17:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17063696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmethewitch/pseuds/Esmethewitch
Summary: Anakin Skywalker does NOT want his family drama to replicate itself in the next generation. He visits Rey as a Force Ghost on Ach-To and tries to impart some of the wisdom he gained after seriously kriffing up his own life and family.





	Anakin Tried

Rey sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor of the hut on Ach-To, eyes closed. Despite the isolated location, she didn’t feel alone. It was almost as if someone were standing beside her. She reached out with the Force with no specific direction in mind. She sensed death, life, and bitterness; on the other side of the hill Luke was chopping up a fish he caught that morning and throwing it into a cauldron for stew with a fixed grimace on his face. He reflexively looked up after a couple minutes of observation. _Good, he is reconnecting with the Force. If he is no longer cutting himself off from it, he may be willing to help me._

She left Luke to his slimy fish guts and crippling cynicism, sweeping over the green hills and weathered steps. _If I watch the Caretakers, will they sense I’m there? Better not to know._ Her gaze wandered to the jagged cliffs and the crashing waves, and skimmed over the vast ocean she used to see in her dreams. But all the while she felt some other unseen presence. It was akin to the first time she used the Force to speak with Kylo Ren, but much fainter. Curious, she returned to the inside of the hut and waited. If this was an entity who wanted to meet her, she planned to give it her full attention. Her eyes were still clamped shut, but nothing happened. She opened them and gasped.

Floating in front of her was a man with wavy brownish hair, surrounded by a glowing blue outline. He appeared roughly her own age, and was wearing robes in an older style.

“A word, Rey?” he asked. “I am sure you have questions to ask. I will try to answer them. And there are some things that you should know before you take your studies further.”

 _At least it’s not Kylo this time, though he reminds me a little of him. Maybe someone will finally give me proper explanations. But will these explanations be true? This could be a new attack from Kylo, or merely a hallucination brought on by stress and a lack of sleep._ “Who are you? How do I know I can trust you and you aren’t just an image made by someone trying to mess with my head?” She didn’t ask if he was a long-lost relative. Ever since she fell into the cave and saw herself reflected into infinity, she wondered if it might be better not to know about her family.

“It’s good that you’re so skeptical. If I had questioned all the things I saw in dreams and the Force, things...might have gone better for me.” The man sighed. “On that note, the first things we should discuss are dreams. Have you had any nightmares lately?”

_Something seems off about him. But it’s not like I can talk about last night’s dream with Luke. There was so much in that horrible vision that I can’t unsee. Even if he has my worst interests at heart, it’s not like I’m giving him any information to use against me. I’ll tell him. I need to get that out of my system. ___

“Yes, I had one last night. It’s still running through my mind. I know it was ridiculous, but it felt real at the time.”

The possible hallucination sucked in a breath. He moved beside her and crouched down so his head was level with hers. “The worst dreams are often the strongest temptations to the Dark Side. The best thing to do is talk about them. You should interpret them as your subconscious fears and desires making themselves known, not as predictions of the future. If you treat them like visions of your fate, then they will come to pass exactly as you saw them.”

“So... you’re saying that if I believe my dreams are real, then they will come true?” Rey was confused. She didn’t want last night’s terrors to become a reality. Luke never told her about dreams. Granted, he had not taught her much about anything. Yet.

He shook his head. “No, I meant that if you make important decisions based on manifestations of your fear, then you are well down your path to the Dark Side. In time, fear will lead to anger, anger leads to …”

Rey cut him off. “Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”

His eyebrows lowered. “Where did you learn this?”

She paused. That progression felt as obvious to her as the fact that planets had gravity. It was one of those things that nobody ever told her but seemed self-evident. _Besides, I think he’ll be disappointed if I told him that it’s on all the cheap motivational posters._ “I think I heard it somewhere. A long time ago. It doesn’t matter. My dream was awful, but it didn’t make me angry.”

“Fear can be dangerous though. What happened in your dream? Did you see someone you love die?”  
_Well, that got morbid quickly._ “No, nothing like that. I was sparring with Luke and got knocked down. Then all of my teeth fell out. Luke took out a bottle of that awful green milk, forced it into my mouth, and started yelling: ‘THIS IS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT DRINKING YOUR MILK! CALCIUM BUILDS STRONG BONES! DRINK IT, OR YOUR SKELETON WILL BREAK TOO!!!’ I woke up in a cold sweat, choking on my pillow. When Luke offered me breakfast this morning, it was all I could do not to cry.”

Her strange visitor’s jaw dropped. “That’s...terrifying, but not quite what I had in mind. I think that falls under the category of a normal stress dream. The worst part is that I can actually imagine Luke screaming about the benefits of dairy. Obi-Wan should have given both of my children to the Organas. Owen and Beru ruined the boy.”

“Wait, what?” _Who are Owen and Beru? Why did he say ‘my’ children? Where does Obi-Wan come into this?_

“They gave him too much bantha milk at an early age. I’m sure they meant well because it is an excellent calcium source. And it’s the only milk you can get on Tatooine. Unfortunately, it has this weird enzyme that gives the banthas foraging instincts, but in humans it somehow translates to an incurable lactose addiction if they get it in high doses. I don’t understand how it works, I just know that the farmers on Tatooine have to heat their milk in vats before they sell it now.”

“I meant who are Owen and Beru, and who are you?”

“Owen was my step-brother, and Beru was his wife. My name is Anakin Skywalker and I am technically dead. I went over to the Dark Side of the force and called myself Darth Vader before Luke redeemed me.”

_So Luke’s father is here, rambling about dairy and dreams. This is not what I imagined. How do I know this is real? Snoke or Kylo could be manipulating me with some sort of projection._

“Didn’t you die? How are we having this conversation?”  
Anakin (If that was even his real name) shifted nervously. “You see me because I exist as a memory in the Force. I did not completely return to it when I died because I had unfinished business with the living.”

“So you’re a ghost?”

“Yes, from a certain point of view.”

“Why are you talking to me, Anakin? I never knew you when you were alive. I don’t have any family that I know of. I was unaware of my Force sensitivity until recently. I’m a nobody. If there’s anyone you should be appearing for, it’s Kylo.”

He winced. “Kylo never really listened to me. I think I was too hard on him at first. He was looking for Darth Vader, and was disappointed to get Anakin. Kylo wanted validation, not someone who constantly criticized his choices. I’ve given up on trying to change him. Anyway, you’re not a nobody; you are more important than you think. Even when I was alive I never met anyone who was as powerful as you with such limited training. But I am concerned about your relationship with my grandson.” He frowned. “I don’t think you understand what can happen if you try to redeem him.”

“First Luke and now you. There is still good in him, despite what he has done. If Ben wants to return to the Light, I will support him in that, but until then I will not help him with anything. If I must, I will kill him before he does more damage. No matter what he promises me in return.”

“I worry that you will forget these words in time. Maybe I’m imagining things, but the problem is that you remind me too much of someone I used to know. She cared. I loved her and she thought she could save me, but she was wrong. She looked after others before herself and while that was a good trait in a senator, it was her own downfall in the end.” Anakin was starting to tear up. He used the edge of his sleeve to rub his eyes and glared.

She looked away. “If it ever comes to a fight between Kylo and myself, I think I can leave it alive,” said Rey, offended that a ghost thought her as weak as a dead queen. “I’ve done it before. I gave him those new scars. He trusts me too much. Call me paranoid, but if I interrogated someone and they almost killed me afterwards, I wouldn’t hang around them with my shirt off or try to hold hands.”

“Oh, I have no doubts that you can thrash my whiny grandson within an inch of his life. What I’m more worried about is how the attempts to redeem him will change you. There is still conflict within you. The cave on this island drew you in despite your fears. Yet it did not give you what you desired. Why is that? Luke admitted that your power scared him. This is coming from the man who tried to save me when I was Darth Vader and taught young Ben Solo. You can either save or destroy the galaxy. And you have this potential before you fully understand what it means to do either. I hope you don’t repeat my mistakes. I pushed myself without knowing why until I snapped. I didn’t recognize when I was developing...issues either. Ultimately it was my fault, but I did go over to the Dark side after leaving my mother too soon and living in a community that put results and protocols before the mental health of an individual. People like us need to guard our sanity. If you remember nothing else, remember to always secure your own mask first.”

Rey froze. _Kylo couldn’t finish what he started, so now he’s turning to me._ After a minute that seemed like hours, she activated her lightsaber. She didn’t know if it could hurt the dead, but it was worth a try.

“Hey, that was mine!” Anakin said, awed. “How did you find it? I thought it was orbiting somewhere around Bespin.”

Rey ignored him. She moved into a defensive stance, putting the humming blade between them. “I will never hide behind a mask. And now I see that the stories they told about your redemption were lies. I am not going over to the Dark Side, not for Kylo, not for you.”

He stepped back, hands up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t explain that very well. The thing with the mask was a metaphor. They used to put that on all the transport ship safety durasheets, you know. ‘Secure your own mask before helping others to do the same?’ For the oxygen masks that would fall down if cabin levels went down too low. They would fall out of hatches in the ceiling…” The fear and anger left Rey, giving way to pure befuddlement. The lightsaber deactivated.

“I’ve never seen that,” Rey muttered. “Wait, I think there were a couple of those things on the Falcon, but there wasn’t a safety card on them. That was the first ship I ever flew off of Jakku. Maybe they don’t have those anymore?” _He lived almost a hundred years ago; I think things have changed._

“Sorry I’m bad at this sort of thing. Obi-Wan is better. Never mind the masks. The masks are not important. I meant know your own limits, be safe, and have a group of people who will support you before you go into situations where you could get yourself hurt.You haven’t finished your Jedi training and you’ve been through a lot lately. I don’t think you should try to help Kylo until you have completed your path to the Light Side. At this point, I would not bet credits on either one of you successfully turning the other.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you just say that?”

Anakin frowned .“I’ve said too much already. I shouldn’t give you orders or specific advice. It is not the Force Ghost way. Ideally, we fade out of visibility right before we can clarify our vague statements. Otherwise, there’s no point to us being dead. I’ll be in trouble with Obi-Wan over this later. He can’t officially punish me, but he can still give me a stern look and a lecture. It doesn’t sound like much, but I’m stuck with him for a while.”

 _I never thought much about death. I just assumed I’d fall one day while out scavenging or I’d starve and everything would end. What if I can’t move on?_ “Will I be like you when I die?” she asked. “When I’m dead I want to be gone.”

“You will only be a Force ghost if there’s someone you weren’t ready to leave behind. When you are at peace with your legacy and wish to join the Force, then you will.”

“Okay, I can live with that. I hope Obi-Wan isn’t too angry at you for talking to me.”

“It will be fine.” He grinned wickedly. “If he gives me grief for having this heart-to-heart with you, I’ll remind him that he should have told Luke about Leia. I must go now. May the Force be with you, little sister.” He faded away.

Rey stayed there on the stone floor. Seabirds shrieked as they dive-bombed the waves that broke on the cliffs below her. A gust of wind blew the door open with a thunk. She jumped to her feet, still holding the lightsaber. After staring at the empty air for a couple of minutes, she sat back down. The conversation with Anakin the ghost seemed like a bizarre dream. What was his motivation for talking to her? Realization rose unpleasantly like a fully armed artificial moon. _His final words were “little sister.” Endless reflections of myself when I asked to be shown my parents._

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”, Rey screamed. A Porg that had been hiding under her cot hitherto unnoticed flapped out, landed in front of her, and screamed too.


End file.
